New council leader and cabinet appointed

Bury Council has appointed a new leader of the council and members of the cabinet.

Councillor Rishi Shori, who has represented Radcliffe West ward for the last seven years, has taken over the leadership from Cllr Mike Connolly, who stepped down after five years in the role. He will also be responsible for business engagement and regeneration.

“It is an honour and a privilege to serve the town in which I was born and raised,” he said.

Cllr Shori (aged 35) is the first council leader in Greater Manchester to come from a BME background.

“My father was born in Uganda and my mother in India,” he said. “They came to the UK in the early 70s and settled in Bury. I was born here and brought up in Walshaw before my family moved to Ainsworth and I now live in Radcliffe. I was educated at Bury Grammar School, went on to Birmingham University where I studied law, and qualified as a solicitor in 2006.”

Cllr Shori has been deputy leader for the last two years and has held cabinet responsibility for health, housing, adult social care and finance.

Cllr Shori’s top five priorities are:

• Increase the supply of affordable housing.
• Make Bury the business/entrepreneurial capital of the North West.
• Improve our educational and training offer.
• Tackle the steep health inequalities that exist within Bury and improve the population’s health and wellbeing.
• Protect and promote our local environment.

“The next four years will be extremely difficult due to massive further cuts to the council budget,” he said. “I am committed to protecting services that support the most vulnerable but also acknowledge that, to meet our aims and ambitions, we need to think innovatively and creatively.

“We will only overcome the challenges that we face and grasp the opportunities that present themselves, for instance from Devolution, by working together: not just the public sector working in isolation, not just businesses acting alone, not simply the voluntary or third sector operating independently, but all working together as one community to make Bury one of the best boroughs in which to live, work, and study.”

Cllr Shori will be joined on the cabinet by: Cllr Jane Lewis (deputy leader, finance and human resources), Cllr Trevor Holt (first deputy, health and wellbeing), Cllr Sharon Briggs (children and families), Cllr Tamoor Tariq (communities), Cllr Sandra Walmsley (strategic housing and support services), and Cllr Alan Quinn (environment).

Also serving on the cabinet, without portfolios, are Cllr Iain Gartside and Cllr Tim Pickstone.

The appointments were made on Wednesday 18 May at the annual meeting of Bury Council, which also installed Cllr Mike Connolly as the Mayor of Bury for 2016/17.

ENDS

Press release issued: 19 May 2016.

Picture attached: Cllr Rishi Shori, the new leader of Bury Council.

Note to editors: Cllr Shori is also the leader of the Labour group on Bury Council, which has 32 seats. Cllr Gartside leads the Conservative group (16 seats) and Cllr Pickstone the Liberal Democrats (3 seats).